Brussels, 26 September 2024 – More than 100 non-governmental organisations, including Amnesty International, the Child Rights International Network and Greenpeace, have called on the European Union to close what they call “hypocritical, cruel, unfair and intolerable” loopholes which allow companies in the EU to export products to other parts of the world even when those products have been banned in Europe for safety reasons.
Laws governing the sale and use of pesticides, children’s toys, toxic chemicals, single-use plastics and intrusive artificial intelligence systems are subject to a loophole that allows companies to export dangerous categories of goods from Europe to the rest of the world.
*** Read the joint briefing and full list of 117 signatories here ***
Greenpeace EU campaigner Lis Cunha said: “It’s scandalous that EU bans on dangerous products don’t apply when the goods are destined for non-EU countries. From plastics to pesticides, Europe’s politicians know that these products are harmful to the environment and people’s health, but they’ve chosen to put private profit above the wellbeing of vulnerable communities in other parts of the world. It’s indefensible, and the EU must now act quickly to close these loopholes with a single, cross-cutting law.”
Veblen Institute advocacy officer for trade policy reform, Stephanie Kpenou, said: “It is high time to end this double standard, which violates the EU’s environmental and human rights commitments and discredits the ambitions of the Green Deal. This ethically unjustifiable situation is yet another illustration of how EU trade policy is often conceived and implemented without regard to its adverse impacts on climate, biodiversity and human rights.”
The joint briefing documents how these hypocritical trade loopholes appear in current and proposed laws, including:
- 2006 REACH Regulation (chemicals)
- 2009 Pesticides Regulation
- 2009 Children’s Toys Directive
- 2019 Single-use Plastics Directive
- 2023 Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation
- 2023 proposal for a Toy Safety Regulation
- 2024 AI Act
According to an investigation by Public Eye, in 2018 over 80,000 tonnes of pesticides containing substances banned within the EU were exported.
In 2023, a Greenpeace Germany investigation revealed that toxic pesticides exported from the EU to non-EU countries were sneaking back into Europe on agricultural produce such as limes, as a cocktail of toxins that could be dangerous for the health of European consumers.
According to the European Chemicals Agency, in 2020 over 660,000 tonnes of hazardous chemicals banned or severely restricted in the EU were exported from the EU to other countries.
The briefing also illustrates examples of existing EU legislation where the loopholes do not appear, and which provide precedent for action to close them. The EU regulation prohibiting goods produced with forced labour and the EU regulation on mercury both cover exports from the EU to non-EU countries.
Corrections:
An earlier version of this press release included a statistic published in BMC Public Health, estimating that 385 million cases of acute pesticide poisonings occur each year. After receiving questions about the study’s methodology which we were unable to answer in the time available to us, we chose to remove the statistic both from the text of the briefing and from this press release. We have retained the link to the study in the briefing.
Advance copies of the briefing incorrectly spelled the name of one of the signatory organisations. The briefing was amended on 25 September to correctly refer to “Foodwatch Netherlands”. Sorry.
Contacts:
Lis Cunha, Greenpeace EU trade campaigner: +49 (0) 1703832076, [email protected]
Stephanie Kpenou, Veblen Institute advocacy officer for trade policy reform: +33786439299, [email protected]
Greenpeace EU press desk: +32 (0)2 274 1911, [email protected]